Page 99 of Scarbound

“Why won’t you let me go?” he sobbed. “Why do I have to keep paying for my brother’s actions?”

The sentence hit Chung-Hee like a slap.

“For his actions?” His voice rose for the first time. “What about yours?”

Noeul slowly looked up, confusion filling his tear-stained face.

“You speak as though you were only Gong’s brother. Aren’t you responsible too?”

“No…” The answer came instinctively. Then uncertainty followed. “I…”

Chung-Hee grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “Aren’t you?”

His voice trembled now, not with fear, but with anger fighting grief.

“You knew.”

“I didn’t know how much Haneul was suffering.”

“You knew Gong was hurting him!”

“I knew they fought!”

“You knew enough!”

Chung-Hee’s hand slid from Noeul’s shirt to his throat. He didn’t squeeze. He simply held him there.

“You keep calling yourself innocent,” he whispered hoarsely, searching Noeul’s eyes. “Then tell me… why have you spent three years punishing yourself?”

Noeul tried to pull away, but Chung-Hee was stronger. As he struggled, several decorations fell from the shrine and struck the floor. Chung-Hee forced him back against the shrine table and held him there, every movement abrupt and careless of the pain he was causing.

“Hyung… please. You’re hurting me.”

The words barely reached Chung-Hee.

Chung-Hee leaned closer, breathing in Noeul’s familiar scent. Almost instinctively, he brushed a strand of hair away from his face, the gentleness of the touch at odds with everything that had come before.

His feelings for Noeul had only grown stronger.

Slowly, he lowered his lips to Noeul’s neck and lingered there. The quiet sound that escaped Noeul tightened something painfully inside his chest.

For the briefest instant, Chung-Hee imagined another life. One where Haneul was still alive, where revenge had never existed, where he could have loved Noeul without guilt.

Then his mother’s words returned.

He knew. He chose his brother.

The fragile fantasy shattered.

Chung-Hee bit down hard.

Noeul’s cry tore through the apartment. The wound bled immediately, and he clutched his neck with trembling fingers.

Chung-Hee remained standing between his legs, staring at him in silence.

Chung-Hee’s closeness still awakened feelings Noeul wished no longer existed. Every gentle touch was followed by cruelty, every moment of comfort by humiliation.

He hated that part of him still longed for the man standing before him.